Tag Archives: correspondence

On trial: Age of Exploration

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I’m pleased to let you know the Library currently has trial access to Age of Exploration, a digital primary source collection from Adam Matthew Digital. This database allows you to discover through archive material the changing shape of exploration through five centuries, from c.1420-1920.

You can access this digital resource via the E-resources trials page.
Access is available both on and off-campus.

Trial access ends 11th February 2019.

Screenshot from ‘Enluminure de Maître d’Egerton: Le Livre des merveilles’. c.1410-1412.

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On trial: Tanzania and Malawi in records from colonial missionaries, 1857-1965

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*The Library has now purchased access to the ‘Tanzania and Malawi in records from colonial missionaries’. See New! Tanzania and Malawi in records from colonial missionaries, 1857-1965.*

Thanks to a request from a student in HCA the Library currently has trial access to the digital primary source collection Tanzania and Malawi in records from colonial missionaries, 1857-1965 from British Online Archives. This gives you access to 54,550 digital pages from the Universities’ Mission to Central Africa (UMCA) archives including correspondence, journals, magazines, books, reports, etc.

You can access the database via the E-resources trials page.

Trial access ends 25th December 2018. Continue reading →

On trial: The Stuart and Cumberland Papers

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*The Library has now purchased access to the The Stuart and Cumberland Papers. See New to the Library: The Stuart and Cumberland Papers*

I’m pleased to let you know that Gale Cengage are giving us trial access to one of the digitised archive from State Papers Online, the Stuart and Cumberland Papers. This archive contains two remarkable collections from the Royal Archives at Windsor Castle, which have been digitised for the first time and are available online in their entirety.

You can access this online resource via the E-resources trials page.
Access is available both on and off-campus.

Trial access ends 14th December 2018.

The Stuart Papers represent the correspondence and personal documents of the exiled members of the Stuart dynasty after 1688. These papers were acquired by George IV when Prince Regent, following the death of Henry Bennedict Stuart, Cardinal York, and were originally kept in the Prince’s Library at Carlton House. The collection tells the story of the lives of James II and his heirs with the majority of papers concerning the period 1713 to 1770, and provide an insight into Jacobite attempts to regain the throne. The later papers in the collection concern Cardinal York’s relations with the Vatican until his death in 1807. Continue reading →

First World War: through our Library resources

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This weekend, Sunday 11th November, marks the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War. In this week’s blog post I have pulled together just a small selection of Library resources, digital and physical, that will help you explore the First World War, the events leading up to it and the aftermath.

“Armistice Day: The Scene outside Buckingham Palace after the End of the Fighting Had Been Announced.” Illustrated London News [London, England] 16 Nov. 1918: n.p. Available from Illustrated London News Historical Archive.

What did the papers say?

Screenshot of front page from The Daily Mirror, Wednesday, August 5, 1914. Available from UK Press Online.

During the war the British Government tried to strictly control reporting on events, particularly from the front line. Legislation was passed in 1914 which allowed the War Office to censor the press and at first journalists had to go undercover to try and report on what was happening. Even when the Government relented and agreed to send accredited British war correspondents to the front line their reports were still heavily censored and were often overt propaganda, with actual facts about events never being reported (see reporting or non-reporting on the Battle of the Somme as an example).

The Library subscribes to a large number of digitised newspaper archives that will allow you to see what events were being reported on at the time and how they were being reported. Read full text articles, compare how different newspapers were covering the same issues and stories and track coverage of the First World War from the escalating hostilities prior to the outbreak to its conclusion and aftermath. Continue reading →

On trial: State Papers Online, Part III

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Thanks to a request from staff members in both HCA and ECA the Library currently has trial access to State Papers Online, Part III: The Stuarts: James I to Anne, 1603-1714: State Papers Domestic from Gale Cengage. This database is a digital collection of English government documents originating primarily from the seventeenth century that allow you to take an in-depth view of some of the issues dominating England at that time.

You can access the database via the E-resources trials page. Access is available both on and off-campus.

Trial access ends 21st November 2018.

State Papers Online, Part III documents one of the most compelling and turbulent eras in Britain’s social, political and religious history. The era’s internal struggles come to life through a wealth of primary source documents including: royal and diplomatic correspondence, reports and parliamentary drafts from civil servants and provincial administrators. Continue reading →

On trial: Governing Africa

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I’m happy to let you know that thanks to a request from a student in HCA the Library currently has trial access to a series of digital collections from British Online Archives, called Governing Africa: British records from African countries under colonial rule. The series includes 13 collections that between them have over 2,500 primary source documents, covering nearly 30 countries including Malawi, South Africa, Gambia, Sierra Leone, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria and have documents dating from 1808-1995.

As we’re currently in Black History Month and with the University’s Africa Week 2018 starting later this week it seemed an appropriate series for the Library to get on trial for staff and students.

You can access the database via the E-resources trials page.

Trial access ends 21st November 2018. Continue reading →

On trial: Area Studies – Japan, China and Southeast Asia

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The Library currently has trial access to two primary source databases from Adam Matthew, Area Studies: China and Southeast Asia and Area Studies: Japan. These provide digital access to primary source materials spanning more than 500 years, selected from the extensive microfilm back catalogue of Adam Matthew Publications.

You can access both the databases via the E-resources trials page.
Access is available both on and off-campus.

Trial access ends 12th November 2018. Continue reading →

On trial: East India Company digital archive

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Thanks to a request from a student in HCA I’m pleased to let you know that the Library currently has trial access to the primary source database East India Company from Adam Matthew. This unique digital resource allows students and researchers to access a vast and remarkable collection of primary source documents from the India Office Records held by the British Library, the single most important archive for the study of the East India Company.

You can access the database via the E-resources trials page. Access is available both on and off-campus.

Trial access ends 16th November 2018.

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On trial: British and Irish Women’s Letters and Diaries

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*The Library has access to British and Irish Women’s Letters and Diaries, 1500-1900 until 31st July 2024 as part of ProQuest Access 350.*

Thanks to a request from a 4th year dissertation student in HCA the Library now has trial access to Alexander Street’s digital collection British and Irish Women’s Letters and Diaries, 1500-1900. Spanning more than 400 years it brings together the personal writings of women from England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales.

You can access the database via the E-resources trials page.
Access is available on-campus. For off-campus access you must be connected to the VPN.

Trial access ends 16th November 2018.

Extending back to the 1500s, the collection lets you view history in the context
of women’s thoughts—their struggles, achievements, passions, pursuits, and desires. The collection shows the various shapes and formats of the diary as it evolved, including the travel diary, offering detailed accounts of journeys and descriptions of places; the daily personal diary, in which women reflected more broadly on aspects of their lives; letter diaries, wherein a daily dated letter to a recipient served simultaneously as a diary entry; and other forms. Continue reading →

New to the Library: Literary Print Culture

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I’m pleased to let you know that the Library now has access to Literary Print Culture: The Stationers’ Company Archive, 1554-2007 from Adam Matthew. Sourced from the archive of The Worshipful Company of Stationers & Newspaper Makers, located at Stationers’ Hall in the City of London, this resource allows access to a vast and unique collection of primary source documents.

You can access Literary Print Culture: The Stationers’ Company Archive via the Databases A-Z list and Primary Source database list. You can also access it through DiscoverEd. Continue reading →